So I recently also took a class at Extraordinary Desserts, probably the best place in San Diego to get decadent, creative, and yummy desserts (and decent meal-food, too). One of the items that the proprietor and executive chef (Karen Krasne) taught us to make was chocolate pots-de-creme.
I’d also recently found a recipe for homemade Oreo-style cookies, and gave the filling part a try. A couple of years ago I’d had a mocha at Hash House a Go Go that was a special — an “oreo mocha” where the mocha itself tasted exactly like Oreo creme filling. I’d wanted to replicate that for a while now, and after a few practice runs (hint, don’t add too much vanilla extract), I’ve got something close, though it still doesn’t match the actual filling of Oreo cookies. I’ll have to experiment more; I’m not yet to the point of buying a pack of Double-Stuf Oreos just to scrape out the filling into a bowl, but I might if I can’t get it right.
So, the other day, I combined the two joys!
First, I whipped together some of the creme filling. I used the recipe for the filling from the King Arthur Flour site above, but left out the gelatin and water. I combined the shortening and sugar along with the vanilla (scraping the mixture off of the whisk a LOT), then added a tiny bit of cold water as it mixed to bring its consistency together. That mostly worked.
Then, I did up the pots-de-creme. That was reasonably easy if a bit involved. I’m not 100% clear on reposting recipes, so the closest recipe I’ve found to what I was using was Oprah’s pots-de-creme — the only difference being that the recipe I was using has you add the milk and creme mixture to the eggs first, then reheat it to custard-ize the mixture and then pour that over the chocolate bits. (Also, for those who know what I’m talking about, I think the stuff that gets strained out of the pots-de-creme in the final step is the same thing that forms pudding skin.)
Next, assembly! I started with some of the creme filling crumblies in a little plastic container:
I took a second container and mashed it down on the crumblies in the first one, trying to compress it into a kind of cake. I’m not yet clear on what exactly holds it together and how to improve it, but this seemed to work, even though some of the resulting cakes came apart later. (It’s still tasty.)
After working it loose in the first container and setting it atop the second, you get this:
Next, I filled a bunch of the same containers about half-full of the pot-de-creme mixture, and put them in the freezer for a few minutes to harden up:
Then the cake goes on top:
And fill the rest with more chocolate pot-de-creme:
You can just see the creme filling cake on the side there.
I brought a bunch in to work, and everyone seemed happy with them; I got a suggestion to add some kind of crunchy something to the mix, which I’ll have to experiment with — I’m wondering if that should be something cookie-like or if I should try cocoa nibs.
The next recipe will be for the pavlovas I made with the egg whites leftover from this recipe. Happy desserting!
So, I’ve been afraid of fish for a while. Not of the fish themselves, but of cooking them. I know it’s good for you, and I grew up with my dad cooking some really yummy fish, but I’ve not really worked up the courage to try (and possibly ruin a pricey cut of fish!) I finally tried poaching some inexpensive flounder a few weeks back, but it was so delicate that it basically came apart in the water as it cooked and turned into unintentional cioppino with floating aromatics. I fished out (ha!) most of the pieces and we had fish piles that night. Not too bad, just not super great.
Cue a few weeks later; I’d signed up for the “Something’s Fishy” class at Great News, probably the best casual cooking school and non-ripoff cookware store I know of. The class was taught by a couple of managers and chefs from Iowa Meat Farms and Siesel’s, which would be the best place I know of to get meat and occasionally seafood. (Even they admitted it was a bit weird for a meat place to do a seafood class, but it worked.)
Anyway, the other night I picked up a side of salmon (not sure what you call it) to try out. Their recipe was for plank-grilled salmon with maple-mustard glaze, which was really tasty when I had it at the class. I haven’t washed the grill in ages (I know, sacrilege, but it’s been too hot to do much outside next to a giant heat source), so I figured I’d try the recipe, but bake the salmon instead.
Here’s the salmon fresh out of the package:
The glaze is really simple — basically, you take some sweet onion (the recipe called for just a half, but I used a whole one), then sautee it to translucent, just before it starts to caramelize. (You don’t need the extra sugar in this case.) Then, add half a cup of whole-grain dijon mustard and a whole cup of maple syrup. Mix it up and bring it to a simmer; let it reduce for about 5 minutes, or more if you want it thicker. Be careful not to let it burn, since there’s a lot of sugar in there.
Brown isn’t always appetizing, but the end result is yummy.
Once the glaze is ready, let it cool down somewhat. Then brush and drizzle it all over the salmon, and put the salmon in the oven at 400 degrees. Let it go for between 10 and 20 minutes depending on the size of the piece; I added more glaze if needed at 10 minutes, and started checking it at about 15.
One of the key things about fish that I didn’t really get until now was that you can’t go off of time; you really need to check the fish and look for signs that it’s done. I started pulling back pieces of the salmon and checking to where it was touching the baking dish — after three or four times of doing that, it looked like there was only a tiny piece that was still raw-ish. This was also the point where the salmon’s fat started coming out of the piece of meat (as you can see a bit in the picture). Remembering that carryover does its thing and that it’s better to undercook fish than to overcook it, I pulled it out at this point and got a really tasty meal (and lunch and dinner the next day, too).
Here’s the final prize:
Serve it with some more of the glaze on the side.
The other things I really liked at the fish class were the bacon-wrapped margarita-glazed scallops and the steak that went with it. I have to say that I’ve been to a couple of really good steak restaurants, but none of those could match the steak at this class. It’s enough to make me want to take these guys’ beef class when it comes up next.
